"European Union floats 'zero-for-zero' tariff resolution to remove industrial fees on US goods: ‘Ready for a good deal.'"

The NY Post reports.

“I hope that the United States and Europe can establish a very close partnership,” said [Elon Musk], “effectively creating a free-trade zone between Europe and North America.” 

That had nearly become a reality during President Barack Obama’s second term but talks broke down after the environmental activist group Greenpeace leaked information, leading to a backlash....

"In a 1987 episode of the HBO satire series 'Not Necessarily the News,' he played an enraged, violent version of himself obsessed with revenge..."

"... on Hollywood executives who had ignored him, all while wearing Dennis the Menace’s signature overalls and striped shirt."

From "Jay North, Child Star of ‘Dennis the Menace,’ Dies at 73/He was best known for playing the towheaded Dennis Mitchell on a sitcom that ran on CBS from 1959 to 1963" (NYT).

You can wear a device that records everything you say and, through A.I., advises you, on a daily basis, about how you can improve your communication skills.

I'm reading "This disc records everything you say — to make you a better person/Limitless hopes its AI wearable device will be used as a life coach and productivity tool by millions" (London Times).

“Practise more active listening and patience when interacting with your kids, especially when they’re seeking your attention,” one notification read that popped up on his smartphone. “Sometimes you get caught up in your own tasks or thoughts and may not fully engage the moment with your children.”

The advice was followed by a transcript, recorded at 9.09am the previous day, when Siroker, a start-up founder, was clearly distracted while his six-year-old clamoured for attention. “It’s hard to hear this, because I didn’t realise …. I’m a good dad,” Siroker trailed off. “But now I can go back to that time, and say, ‘Hey, what was I doing at 9.09 that was so damn important?’”

Presumably, the child is also recorded. Does the A.I. critique the child too?  

The microphone is always on! You end up with searchable document of everything it records. And by "you," I mean anyone who uses one of these things. I hope whoever they are, they use it only for its intended purpose: To improve communication. The privacy problems are obvious, but it's only a matter of time. These things — like the cameras everywhere — are inevitable. 

"Separate bathrooms every time for me. I loathe double sink bathrooms."

Sniffs one commenter at the London Times article, "Mick Jagger’s £5.5m Marylebone flat — buy a part of rock history/The apartment the Rolling Stone shared with Marianne Faithfull was a notorious party pad in the Swinging Sixties, handily located near Harley Street’s clinics."

Another commenter sniffs at the sniffer: "Sinks are in a kitchen. Basins are in a bathroom."

I wasted some time trying to understand why Mick Jagger would want someone using the sink — uh, basin — next to him, but this is just some house Jagger rented over half a century ago. But I'm still blogging this because 1. I'm amused by one commenter out-sniffing another, 2. I'd never paid attention to the basin/sink distinction (if it even exists in America), and 3. The double sink issue. I browse enough real estate listings to know there are people out there who think 2 sinks in one bathroom is a nice feature. Why?! The only decent use I can think of is in a children's bathroom, but who are these kids who can't brush their teeth the old fashioned way, huddled around one sink? 

Chris Cuomo — bulging out of his T-shirt — says Democrats should find "a message" and "then you find the messenger."

And Bill Maher — possibly still digesting that dinner he had with Trump — tells him how wrong he is.

"The Democrats always say message. Who hears a message?"

 

Trump's "message," according to Maher is "I'm me, I'm strong and I'm daddy." To Maher, the people are "like an animal, they're instinctive, like, I smell fear, or I smell alpha... and Democrats have to come up with an alpha, and it's not Tim Walz, and it's not Tim, the other Tim who ran... You know that you gotta appeal to people at a sort of post-civilization stage where we're kind of on a primal level. You just do. And Trump does it better than anybody."

Cuomo takes the cue. But he doesn't go with the idea that Trump is who he is. He says Trump figured out who the people hate and essentially said: "I know who you hate, and I know what you hate...  and I hate them too, and I will make them pay." And Democrats hate Trump: "They just hate him. They do. So he can't even get shot and get compassion."

If Maher is right and Cuomo is wrong and Trump just is who he is and what he is is daddy, alpha, and the people respond by instinct, then what are the Democrats to do? Wait to be taken over and rearranged by some left-wing father figure? Or maybe a true Mother? If Cuomo is right, Democrats need only absorb something of the people's emotions and reflect them back convincingly enough. Neither man believes the people can become educated and rational. We're out here stewing in the "sort of post-civilization stage."

Sunrise — 6:33, 6:37.

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"Vietnam Offers to Drop U.S. Tariffs to Zero. Will That Be Enough for Trump?"

A New York Times headline reports the good news for Trump but the good is not enough for the New York Times. The good news must be balanced with bad news, even if it's just a nudging toward amorphous doubt. You know that Trump. There's always more disruption and chaos coming. 

What will the NYT say if Trump's tariffs have this effect across the board and all countries drop their tariffs? Will the NYT credit Trump for his success — for his audacious, clever move?

I see that yesterday, the NYT had this headline: "Musk Says He Hopes Europe and U.S. Move to a ‘Zero-Tariff Situation’/The billionaire adviser to the Trump administration appeared to part ways with the president in a videoconference appearance with Italy’s far-right League party." I give the Times credit for slipping in that weasel word, "appeared." The 2 men appeared to part ways. And it appears different today. Now that Vietnam has responded to the incentive — oh, look at that! — the 2 men seem to be going the same way.

Well, they looked like that yesterday too, but the NYT needed to continue on its way, making trouble for Trump. There's always bad news inside any good news.

I need a phrase that's the reverse of "Every cloud has a silver lining." Maybe: "Every pong-pong fruit has its deadly poison seeds." I mean, to hell with the agitation in New York Times headlines! Tonight is the finale of Season 3 of "The White Lotus." Those seeds are getting into one of those protein smoothies Patrick Schwarzenegger keeps whipping up, right? 

There were lots of handmade/"handmade" signs at Madison's anti-Trump rally yesterday.

What would you do if it was your job to create the look of a truly grassroots uprising? Wonky lettering. Off-beat slogans. One thing I noticed was that the signs — most of them — were on uniformly sized white poster board. I'd go with more unfolded boxes — corrugated cardboard — and spray-painted old sheets. And the sign-holders were densely packed in front of the speaker's podium. That's photogenic, but lacking in chaotic energy. 

I was merely driving by the protests, so I can't comment on the mood. Were they angry? But these are people who just had a big political win 4 days ago — the Wisconsin Supreme Court election. They could be happy. Whatever. I'm not a source of information as I was 14 years ago, during the anti-Scott-Walker protests. 

I remember when that mild-mannered character was "Hitler":

Why were the anti-Trump protests yesterday called "Hands Off"?

That was my first question, and it led to a series of questions:

• Generally, I would think, it is the role of the President to take charge, to handle all problems, and to get things done. A "hands-on" President sounds like an effective, active President, so it sounds as though it is an objection to the elected President being President. That reads as anti-democratic to me.

• If these protesters were libertarian, the slogan "hands off" would make more sense. These would be people wanting government to do as little as possible. But even then, much of what Trump is doing is cutting back government, making it smaller, more like the libertarian ideas. The tariffs are an exception to that, but you get my point. His hands are ON many government programs for the purpose of ending them or cutting them back. The protesters want to preserve big government.

• I think the tariffs are a means to an end of eliminating the tariffs against us. If that's what's really going on then the tariffs are not an exception and could be characterized as getting government out of free trade.

• Trump has been making big moves that have won cooperation from his antagonists. I'm thinking of the universities and law firms that backed down when confronted with financial loss.

• He has good reason to think that huge moves are needed or people will just resist and drag it out and wait it out. He needs shock and awe. The response "hands off" seems weak. Who will "hands off" convince? How did that slogan emerge?

All of that is for the annals of Things I Asked Grok. If you want to see how Grok answered, here's the link. Those are all prompts, by the way, so don't assume I believe all those assertions. It's a bit like teaching law school: You frame ideas to engage your interlocutor. You don't profess belief. You open things up for a better look.

One thing I saw is that the "Hands Off" slogan came from the abortion-rights discourse. But Hands Off My Body is a libertarian concept. 

Sunrise — 6:39.

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"C.E.O. Choked Man Who Danced Barefoot on Cruise Ship...."

A NYT headline speaks of the recent trend of throwing your life away for nothing.

The altercation began shortly after Mr. DeGiorgio’s wife had confronted the man about barefoot dancing, telling him, “Look, we are all grown-ups here — can you put your shoes on?” Mr. DeGiorgio’s wife told investigators that the man had made a crude remark to her, and the security video showed him giving her the middle finger, according to the F.B.I...

I looked it up. The "crude remark" was "Shut up, you fucking bitch." 

We're told DeGiorgio's pay package (at First American Financial) is $7.8 million.

What's so bad about taking your shoes off to dance? It can be a way to be quieter, more graceful, or to protect the dance floor — think sock hop. And I've heard the wistful longing: There will come a time when you can even take your clothes off when you dance.

"Musk’s onetime biographer Seth Abramson wrote on X that he would 'peg his IQ as between 100 and 110'..."

"... and claimed that there was 'zero evidence in his biography for anything higher.' The economics commentator Noah Smith estimated Musk’s IQ at more than 130, a number gleaned from his reported SAT score. A circulating screenshot shows Fox News has pegged the number at 155, citing Sociosite, a junk website. The pollster Nate Silver guessed that Musk is 'probably even a "genius,"' and theorized that he may not always appear that way because... 'high IQs serve as a force multiplier for both positive and negative traits.'... To some of our most powerful people, IQ has come to stand in as the totalizing measure of a person — and a justification for the power that they claim. Trump has spent much of his second term sorting humans into 'low IQ individuals' (Kamala Harris, Representative Al Green) and 'high IQ individuals' (cryptocurrency boosters, Musk, Musk’s 4-year-old son)... Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency is seeking 'super high-IQ' applicants.... This whole elite intelligence-measuring contest sets the stage for the 'high IQ' tech leader to seize ownership over the concept of intelligence itself — and to ultimately bring all people under its control. As Musk recently posted on X, the platform that he owns: 'It increasingly appears that humanity is a biological bootloader for digital superintelligence.'"

Writes Amanda Hess, in "What Is Elon Musk’s IQ? The questionable measure of intelligence has now been uncoupled from any test and loosed into the discourse to justify Silicon Valley’s power" (NYT).

I hate to think I'm inclined to ask Grok: What did Elon Musk mean by "It increasingly appears that humanity is a biological bootloader for digital superintelligence"? And: What does it say about my IQ that I had to ask?

I didn't know the term "bootloader." Reminds me of "bootlicker." And I'm distracted by the (irrelevant) image of a boot... but "If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face—forever.”

"Many business people and investors are still hoping Mr. Trump will recognize the havoc he is creating and ease off his tariffs. But so far, he doesn’t seem concerned...."

I'm reading a column by Steven Rattner, who was counselor to the Treasury secretary in the Obama administration, in "'Few of Us Ever Imagined He Would Go This Far.'"

I think Trump is concerned. Just not the way Rattner and business people and investors are hoping he'll be concerned. 

Why is this article illustrated with an image of Trump atop a weather vane, with his hands outstretched to feel the wind blow, and moving from side to side? It doesn't reflect what Trump is doing. Is it a picture of the business people's hope?

I think Trump has chosen his solution to a problem — or set of problems — and he's locked in. If he could be shaken out of his resolve by cries of "havoc," virtually everything he's started he would have stopped.  

Side trip: What does it mean to "cry havoc"? It doesn't mean to cry out "This is havoc!" It means: "Let's wreak havoc!"

"A conservative commentator took offense at the statement conservatives 'are really gratified to see a conservative person on television.'"

"The person who made the statement wondered if 'gratified' is now a 'trigger' word. This made me think the commentator might think 'gratified' implies sex."

For the annals of Things I Asked Grok.

I was reading "Meghan McCain Gets Triggered By Carrie Coon After 'White Lotus' Star Said Former 'View' Co-Host Was 'Gratified' For Conservative Character" (Deadline). 

So, McCain is the "conservative commentator."

Sunrise — 6:26, 6:35.

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"The aim is clear: to stop the executive branch in its tracks and prevent the administration from changing direction on hundreds of billions of dollars of government largesse..."

"... that the executive branch considers contrary to the United States’ interests and fiscal health. Only this court can right the ship — and the time to do so is now."

Wrote Sarah M. Harris, the acting solicitor general, in an emergency application, quoted in "Supreme Court Lets Trump Suspend Grants to Teachers/In boilerplate letters, the administration told recipients that the grants supported diversity efforts and were wasteful." (NYT).

The Court's order was 5 to 4, with the Chief Justice voting with the 3 liberal Justices.